Antibiotic resistance: new guidelines released
Nine out of 10 GPs feel pressured by patients to prescribe antibiotics.
The National Institute for Health Care and Excellence (NICE) have released new guidelines to tackle the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.
The draft guidelines are intended to help health and social care commissioners, providers and prescribers promote and monitor the sensible use of antimicrobials to preserve their effectiveness in the future.
In addition to highlighting the need for local antimicrobial stewardship programmes, the draft guidelines also recommend setting up multidisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship teams working across all care settings. They state that these teams should be able to review prescribing and resistance data frequently and feed this information back to prescribers.
Commenting on the guidelines Professor Mark Baker, director of the Centre for Clinical Practice at NICE, said: "This draft guidance recognises that we need to encourage an open and transparent culture that allows health professionals to question antimicrobial prescribing practices of colleagues when these are not in line with local and national guidelines and no reason is documented."
However, Professor Baker believes that it is not just prescribers who should be questioned about their attitudes and beliefs to antibiotics.
He adds: “It’s often patients themselves who, because they don’t understand that their condition will clear up by itself, or that perhaps antibiotics aren’t effective in treating it, may put pressure on their doctor to prescribe an antibiotic.
"Nationally, 41.6 million antibacterial prescriptions were issued in 2013 -14 at a cost to the NHS of £192 million. Despite considerable guidance that prescribing rates of antibiotics should be reduced, nine out of 10 GPs feel pressured to prescribe antibiotics, and 97 per cent of patients who ask for antibiotics are prescribed them.
"The draft guideline therefore recommends that prescribers take time to discuss with patients the likely nature of their condition, the benefits and harms of immediate antimicrobial prescribing, alternative options such as watchful waiting and/or delayed prescribing and why prescribing an antimicrobial may not be the best option for them."
Welcoming the guidelines, Dr Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Antibiotics have served us well in treating infections for over 60 years, but as a society we have become too dependent on them and they are now seen as a ‘catch all’ for every illness and infection.
"GPs can come under enormous pressure from patients to prescribe antibiotics so we welcome a team approach to ensuring that this is done appropriately and that they are used responsibly."
Veterinary practices are being urged to help owners safely dispose of any unused and expired pet medicines - not just antibiotics - during November's Animal Medicines Amnesty. 
